Feb. 24, 2008: Lee's Caldwell takes fourth at state diving meet

Published 6:00 pm, Saturday, February 23, 2008

AUSTIN - In what will be her home pool next season, Lee diver Lauren Caldwell didn't finish her high school career with the results she wanted to.

By Lee Passmore

Midland Reporter-Telegram

From staff reports

AUSTIN - In what will be her home pool next season, Lee diver Lauren Caldwell didn't finish her high school career with the results she wanted to.

Caldwell, a senior, barely missed out Saturday on winning a medal for the second straight year, as she finished fourth in the girls 1-meter diving event at the University of Texas, the same school Caldwell has signed to compete for.

With a score of 451.45, Caldwell finished fourth, exactly .70 points away from a bronze medal behind Spring's Kayla Arnett. Vennie Dantin of The Woodlands won the gold with a score of 461.25.

Last year, Caldwell won a medal for the first time in three trips to the state meet, taking a silver and finishing only .30 points out of a gold. This year after Friday's preliminaries, Caldwell appeared in good shape as she was in second place.

"It was just a close contest the whole way," said Jennifer Mangum, who coaches the Lee and Midland High divers. "It was one of the best competive contests I've seen at a state meet in a long time. (Caldwell) didn't dive badly at all, but she could have picked up some extra points (on Friday)."

It was on Saturday that Caldwell couldn't quitemaintain her pace, and ended up narrowly finishing out of the medal standings. Mangum said that the degree of difficulty has increased for divers across the board.

"We can complain about judging but when it came down to the end (Caldwell) wasn't the best one on this day," Mangum said.

Caldwell wasn't the only local diver to make the state meet. Midland High junior Petie Staub, making his first appearance in Austin finished 13th.

Staub might have suffered from state meet jitters.

"He was disappointed since he thought he could have done a little better," Mangum said of Staub. "I think the pressure of the state meet got to him a little."